It provides measurement procedures for compliance testing USB Type-C cable assemblies in time and frequency domains; and, together with a test package such as Keysight’s state file, works with the M937xA PXIe multiport vector network analyzer to provide the compliance test solution for USB Type-C cable assemblies. This step-by-step guide of measurement procedures for time and frequency domains simplifies compliance setup and testing.

The 10-Gbps USB 3.1 specification delivers more than double the practical data rate compared to the current 5-Gbps USB 3.0. This increase in data rate, results in even tougher requirements for the physical layer to ensure interoperability. One of the measurement challenges, Keysight notes, for such high-speed digital cable assemblies is to perform the multiport measurements.

Keysight presents its M937xA PXIe Multiport VNA to provide true multiport measurements with full N-port calibration and an inherent frequency domain measurement capability. For the USB Type-C cable assembly tests, engineers can configure the M937xA to support 12-port measurements—from 300 kHz to 15 GHz—to generate an s12p touchstone file that engineers can analyze using the USB-IF compliance tool. By generating an s12p file using the VNA’s 12-port configuration, the frequency domain measurement time is drastically reduced to just 20 seconds.

“Keysight MOIs are available for a number of different high-speed digital applications, such as HDMI, Ethernet and PCI Express,” said Akira Nukiyama, vice president and general manager, Keysight’s Component Test Division Kobe. “Our newest addition to this list [is] the USB Type-C cable assembly MOI.”